Year in review: Tragedy marks Cannon's year

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE — In 2017, Cannon Air Force Base welcomed a new Wing Commander, watched his predecessor depart for the Pentagon and celebrated military anniversaries. It also saw tragedy, including a plane crash that killed three airmen and prompted a community-wide solidarity movement.

“Cannon Strong” and its accompanying hashtag took hold after a March 14 crash during a training flight near the Clovis Municipal Airport that claimed the lives of Captain Andrew Becker, Captain Kenneth Dalga and First Lieutenant Frederick Dellecker.

It was the first fatal crash in the region involving one of Cannon’s planes since before the base became a Special Operation Wing in 2007. Before that, records showed a single-fatality crash during a training exercise in 2002 and a few in the 1980s.

In the weeks following, community members and businesses in Clovis and Portales broadcast signs reading #cannonstrong to show their support for the base and sympathy for its loss. Five months later, Cannon personnel stood in uniform outside the Clovis-Carver Public Library during a memorial gathering to honor those affected by the Aug. 28 shooting there — this time, the slogan was “Clovis Strong,” but the communities still stood together as one.

“Cannon’s an island; there’s just no water around. But I definitely include Clovis and Portales as part of that island when it comes to family and community,” said Col. Ben Maitre, 27th SOW commander from early 2015 through this summer, when he departed to become a senior analyst at the Pentagon.

“In my 12 assignments, the local community here has been the most supportive I’ve encountered to date,” he said in a May interview. “Quite literally from day one all the way through the support of the community during our (March 14) mishap, when the outreach was frankly almost overwhelming in terms of both its sincerity and requests to help.”

The base’s public affairs office said Tuesday there are no updates on the investigation of the crash.

Reflecting further on his time at Cannon, Maitre noted the 10-year anniversary in 2017 of Air Force Special Operations Command at Cannon, during which time new facilities, hangars and aircraft landed at the storied military installation eight miles west of Clovis.

“This was a fighter base for 50 years before Special Operations came here. What I’ve been looking at is making it a Special Operations base for another 50 years,” he said.

In October, the base held an open house to celebrate that 10-year anniversary. The gates were open to the public, drawing crowds to get up close with aircraft like the Pilatus PC12 and MC-130, view Explosive Ordnance Disposal equipment and watch a K-9 demonstration.

The occasion coincided closely with the 70th anniversary of the creation of the U.S. Air Force as an independent service, established on Sept. 18, 1947, when President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act.

Meanwhile, Clovis High School’s Air Force Junior ROTC program celebrated its 50th anniversary as the first such unit in the state with a special military ball Sept. 30.

Overseeing base proceedings for the latter half of the year was a new wing commander, returning to Cannon after a previous assignment there from 2008-2012.

Having seen the base in its early years under SOW designation, Col. Stewart Hammons said he was impressed at its development while he was away.

“Frankly, what’s occurred both on the base and in the community in the last five years that we’ve been gone is staggering. That's in relation to the just under $1.3 billion in infrastructure projects over the last 10 years that the military has put into Cannon Air Force Base," he said in an interview this summer.

In his first weeks in the new position, Hammons echoed Maitre’s departing thoughts on the dynamic between the base and its surrounding communities.

“Of all my 23 years in service ... this is by far the best relationship I’ve ever seen between the local communities and military. It’s absolutely fantastic,” he said.